Power Of Five

"Alright Beag," Bravenwolf demanded, "You're sure it's in there?"

Beag agreed, "Yes! The Tenkai dragon cube is definitely in there, our intelligence could not be incorrect."

Brillius had her back pinned to a small rock formation. She really, really hated having a katana at the moment, wishing it was a naginata or some other sort of spear so she could at least throw her weapon at the enemy without feeling like a loser. Truth be told, she wasn't the only one who was completely useless. Bravenwolf couldn't do a long ranged attack either. Still, she hated this sense of helplessness with a passion. After a long moment, she glared at Bravenwolf.

"This is ridiculous, we can't do this!" She snapped, throwing her hands up.

Lydendor argued with her, "We can do this. We can."

"Whatever you say, crazy doll, but we aren't getting out of this thing without getting messed up at least a lot!" The black and white knight replied, eyes flashing angrily.

Bravenwolf yelled, "You two, focus!"

"Nobody wants to hear you two bicker like an old married couple." Tributon agreed.

Lydendor immediately snapped, "We are not an old married couple!"

"Guys, come on, be serious. Hold your position." Bravenwolf said.

After a long moment, Tributon raced forward, shooting his arrows off like a dork. Brillius face palmed quietly, knowing that there would be horrible results from this. She knew holding her position was basically useless and dangerous now, so she bursted out of cover and began fighting. Bravenwolf yelled at Tributon loudly that he was supposed to stay 'in position', while Lydendor screamed at Brillius for blowing the plan and just taking on the enemy.

"Lydendor, the plan was done for when Tributon didn't hold his position. We're in a free-for-all now." Valorn said.

The yellow knight sighed, "Yeah. I know."

They then leapt from their hiding spot, fighting, only to get blasted across the battlefield. Brillius sighed in annoyance- this team was a mess. She blocked a couple shots, sliced a Corrupted in half, and snorted to herself. She wasn't exactly helping either, since her entire basis was to be a jerk and challenge any form of orders given. After a long moment, she frowned, seeing a bright orange and black figure with Granox on the top of the castle.

"Granox, this seems a bit sad, doesn't it?" The robot said, sounding dismal.

Granox was confused, "Sad? What is that supposed to mean?"

"The fact that it takes carnage," He replied, "That it takes… this to fight the Knights."

The gray robot snapped, "It's fun, and who're you supposed to be, anyways?"

"Stratus. I'm Stratus." He replied, laughing weakly, "And this? This is just sick."

Back down below, the Knights could only watch as a large amount of flying whatchamacallits (not the food) began coming toward them. The Corekai immediately began to flee, and after being showed up a few times, the Knights began to run away as well. Stratus frowned to himself. This was no fair fight, a fight he would never hesitate to change in the favor of the Tenkai Knights. If anyone would defeat them, it would be him, and if in any manner, only in the honorable way. He chuckled, knowing that with a little help from him, things would turn out very differently next time.

After all, if Stratus didn't have his honor, he had nothing.

"That. Was. Awful!" Brittany yelled as she came out of the portal.

Chooki snapped, "You should have held your position."

"Guess what, Perfect? It would have just gotten my bot handed to me on a silver platter." She said, her gray eyes narrowing into slits.

He retorted, "You just don't know how to handle a situation."

"I thought we got this out of our systems on Quarton…" Guren mumbled, unable to prevent the disappointment leaking into his voice as they walked up the stairs.

Ceylan said, "I guess I heard you wrong, but I'm sorry I didn't follow orders…"

"Man," Toxsa mumbled, "This is the worst mission fail ever…"

Once the knights got up the stairs and Brittany and Chooki were both finished squabbling, everyone was quiet. Brittany had no expression, having been through enough to know that words didn't help when everyone was down. When the silence was louder than a jet engine, Toxsa finally decided to break it.

"That was totally bogus…" He sighed.

Chooki whispered, "I could've won if I could fly…"

"Newsflash, Chooki- you can't fly." Ceylan replied.

After another awkward silence, Brittany said, "We just need to work on our teamwork. We were flailing around because we couldn't work together."

"You don't have room to talk-" Chooki began.

She interrupted him, "No, I'm not saying I don't need to work on it myself- I do, I was a total pain in the neck- but it could work out better if we practiced, you know? Like…"

"Like replaying a tutorial to master a skill?" Toxsa suggested.

Chooki threw in, "A training session for football?"

"Studying for a test?" Guren tried.

Brittany exclaimed, "Exactly! All of you, spot on!"

They all nodded, thinking about it. If they just did a little training to get in sync for the next time, they'd have a better chance at success. They each smiled, knowing they could pull this off. When Mr. White came in to talk to them, he raised his eyebrows to see how happy they all were. They were all smiling, high giving, and thinking about how they would get practice on their teamwork.

"Well, despite the defeat, you all seem to be in high spirits." He commented.

Brittany grinned, "Yeah, doll. We decided we would do some team building exercises to get better at working together."

"That's a wonderful idea!" He smiled with them, "It will help you when you need to robofuse."

"Robofuse?"

That word stopped all the merriment. While Toxsa and Guren were wondering what it was, Brittany and Ceylan were thinking it sounded like work, and Chooki was considering whether it could help them win the next battle. Mr. White realized that they had never heard a term such as that before, so he poured them some tea and set down the pot on the coffee table. He then began to walk across the room.

"Robofusion. Each Knight is a piece of a whole. When you combine them together, you get something much more powerful." He explained.

Brittany asked, "So, we get awesome? Sweet."

"We totally get to turn into a t-rex!" Ceylan squealed happily.

She frowned, "I hardly think a t-rex will help us with those flying pieces of junk…"

"Right…" He sighed, "That's a bummer."

She replied, "I think I know just the way to do team building, guys!'

"Awesome. How?" Chooki asked.

Brittany blinked, then said, "I'll tell you after I eat."

"Seriously?!" The other knights all exploded.

"Hey, I'm hungry. Deal with it."

Once the team got to the nearby Turtle Diner and slid into bar seats (with complaints from a certain girl in their ranks who wanted a booth), Toxsa walked behind the counter and tossed the others a menu. He seemed fairly comfortable with doing so, and he socialized momentarily with a tall girl with green hair. She was a highschooler, and wore a whole lot of pink. She nodded a couple times, then Toxsa returned and sat beside Ceylan.

"Alright, you ready to order, or do you need a minute?" She asked.

Brittany immediately replied, "I'd like a two egg omelet, a small chili con carne on the side, and a cherry Coke. Thank you, ma'am."

"'Kay, but I think we're out of chili con carne today." The girl replied, then said, "Toxsa, you need to repair the fryer when you get home tonight."

Toxsa slumped over, "Okay. This is my sister, Wakamei. She's our waitress… unfortunately."

"As long as I get food, I don't care if our waitress is a bilingual dog on roller-skates." Brittany said, "Nice to meet you, though."

Wakamei looked both disturbed and curious, then glanced over at Toxsa. "Is he always like that?"

"I think so. She seems pretty intent on making all of us question our sanity." Toxsa nodded, seeming fairly irked by what the team freak had said.

Wakamei raised a brow, "She."

"Yeah, she's a girl. It's been confirmed." He lazed against the counter.

His sister asked, "Anybody else want anything?"

"Yeah. Got anything hot and spicy?" Chooki shot a glare at the girl, "Hotter and spicier than chili con carne?"

Wakamei looked surprised, "Really, Chooki? I thought you had a sweet tooth. I guess there's the ghost pepper chili…"

"Don't bother, sis, Chooki has issues with Brittany. He'll just whine for hours that candy doesn't taste the same if you give him anything spicy." Toxsa sounded bored, "Grab me anything, alright?"

Ceylan asked, "Do you have lime parfait?"

"I'll check." She shrugged.

Once Wakamei was gone, Chooki glared at Brittany, who was now doodling in her ever-constant notebook that inconsistently came out of nowhere. After a minute or so, she started sketching out a small plan hatched in her mind. She had it so the team got in tune with one another. The answer she had come up with: canoeing. They were going to work together to row a canoe across the nearby Benham Lake.

"That won't work unless you have somebody instructing you." Everything froze when Brittany heard that voice. "I could give you a hand, though."

All five of them whipped around, looking a a certain true blond. Chevy smiled at them, giving a nod, his arms crossed in order to make himself appear less approachable than he actually was. Chooki took one look at him and narrowed his eyes, as if he set off some sort of "bad mojo" alarm. Guren and Ceylan greeted him easily, Toxsa tilting his head slightly in confusion. Brittany said something about taking a seat, so Chevy slid onto the bar seat next to her, as if he was a knight himself. The brunet beside Brittany looked away from Chevy.

"Nice to see you, Chevy. What brings you here?" Brittany asked.

He replied, "I'm just exploring. That's what the new guy does, right?"

"Well, whatever. Why would you help us?" She smiled, but is still cautious.

Chevy explained, "I just have nothing to do right now. I haven't made any other friends yet, it's disappointing."

"Cool. Well, want something? I'll even pay." She winked at him, a smile on her lips.

He shrugged, "I ate already. And I don't let other people buy my food and drink."

"O-okay." Brittany frowned, then smiled again, "Whatever. Chooki, Toxsa, this is Chevy."

Chevy closed his eyes and smiled, "It's nice to meet you!"

"Cool, thanks for helping us out. I'm Toxsa." The green haired boy grinned back.

Chooki simply held his pride, "I'm Chooki Mason."

"Yeah, I've heard about you. I'm joining the soccer team that you're leading, I think." Chevy seemed more curious than the opposing male.

Chooki ignored the blond's hand as he attempted to get a hint of friendship out of the yellow knight. After waiting a while to get the handshake, he realized there wasn't going to be one, so he quietly let his hand drop to his side. He glanced away momentarily, looking almost guilty for the sudden lack of trust. The others felt sympathy for the leather clad kid, but if Chooki decided he didn't trust somebody, the very idea of convincing him somebody was worth trusting was even crazier than his unnatural hatred of a person.

"Ignore Choo Choo train over there. He has some issues." Brittany said.

Immediately, he pounced on the opportunity, "No I don't!"

"Then stop hating, doll." She snapped back.

He growled, "You're just looking to fight."

"Oh yeah? Wanna go a round, tough guy?"

"You know it!"

"No wonder your team's so dysfunctional! If you two are always at each other's throats, then that wreaks havoc on any chance of teaming up as necessary!" Chevy shouted over their arguing.

Both of them froze in place, Brittany's hand placed on Chooki's face to push him, and her other being in his bangs, trying to tear them out, while Chooki had been trying to kick her off her chair. The leather clad boy stood up, looking determined not to let them be a pair of dumb bunnies. He grabbed them by the collars and yanked them off their seats, both grunting as he hoists them back up to their feet by the scruffs. He had gone from a total sweetheart to a trainer in seconds. A smile crossed his lips.

"Grab your food, then let's go. We're training now!" He declared.

Brittany said, "But I ordered a full course…"

"Then you better finish in less than five minutes."

"Urrrrrgh…" Toxsa and Ceylan groaned, collapsing as soon as they reached the shore of the lake.

Guren fell on top of them because he tripped, but was also exhausted. Chevy and Chooki were sweating like pigs, but they were fine. Brittany was gasping for breath, hanging on a nearby tree for support, practically dying from exhaustion. Chevy clucked his tongue softly, but he was smiling as well. He and the suspicious brunet helped up the collapsed team.

"That was good for cardio." Chevy explained.

Brittany wheezed, "It was bad for our soul…!"

"It wasn't that bad. Now, let's get a canoe." The blond seemed amused by their struggles.

Slowly, but surely enough, the heap of boys eventually started walking after they got enough strength. They dragged the canoe out to the lake (spending another few thousand hours dying of exhaustion), then ran back and got the oars. They got in into the water, and were in their canoe seats. Each of them had a two sided oar, and they looked at Chevy, who was getting in nervously. His leather jacket had been left behind at the boat rental, and in turn was in simply his orange t-shirt. He stared at the water cautiously, then, when he was steady, sat down.

"You okay, Chevrolet?" Brittany asked.

Chevy shuddered, then nodded, "Wrong car dealership, but I'm okay. I just…"

"Just what?" Guren asked.

Chevy waved it off, "It's nothing…" The blond then said, "Alright, you ready for this, boys and girl?"

"Yeah! One mind, one team!" They all agreed.

Chevy nodded, then called out, "Oar with my directions. Left right left! Left right left!"

"Left right left, left right left, left right left!" They all chanted, rowing in synchronized harmony.

As they were going, they felt it. They actually started seeing what was coming from one another, knowing the pattern like the back of their hands. After a few thousand more strokes, Brittany watched Chevy's fists tighten around his seat, his knuckles turning white from the strength of his grip. She considered for a moment what could possibly be wrong until she remembered the way he reacted when he got in. The clenched fists were the only sign that he wasn't feeling too good about being on the water. Other than that, he appeared fine.

"Chevy." She said, breaking everyone's concentration.

He smiled, but his body was completely tense. His fists got an even more intense death grip on the canoe seat. "Yeah, what's up?"

"Do you want off? I'm sure we can get somebody else to help, Chooki has plenty of friends, and…"

"I'm… I'm fine…" His voice weakened slightly, having glanced into the water, "I want to do this. I have no problem with this."

Chooki disagreed, "You look like you're going to have a panic attack if we get into any deeper water, dude. You sure you don't want us to stop?"

Ceylan and Guren brought the canoe to a standstill, allowing them a chance to turn around if they needed to. Chevy smiled again, so Toxsa rocked the boat a little, and he went from grinning to looking like he was about to have a heart attack. Chevy heard one of his nails crack, but he didn't seem to care. He took a moment, reassuring himself, and then relaxed.

"I'm… fine. I got this." He insisted.

Guren nodded, "If you say so, let's go. Left, right, left…"

They managed to steer their way around an island, though Toxsa and Guren got into a slight argument when Toxsa had oared the wrong direction. Brittany had also been smacked by Chooki's oar a few times, which had caused her to reach back and hit him. This resulted in several comments from Chevy about their seating choice ("Why did I ever let you two sit together?!"), and being told to cut it out by everyone else. After a while, things were pretty easy. That is, until the crossed paths with a lovebird boat.

"Turn the boat!"

"Starboard!"

"Perfect, stop, you're hitting me with your oar again!"

"I can't swim!"

Everyone was yelling at one another to do something, and they kept paddling against each other (or started hitting each other… Brittany. Chooki.), which caused them to crash into the lovebirds. When the knights and the couple surfaced, they were drenched. Brittany looked around, realizing that there was one big problem.

"Guys," She asked, "Where's Chevy?"

Everyone looked around for a minute, then Ceylan and Chooki dived under to find him. He was flipping out a lot, completely panicking. They managed to grab him, causing him to relax a lot, and they dragged him to the surface. Chevy coughed out a lot of water, his blond hair no longer sticking up in the front. He shuddered heavily, wrapping his fingers around Chooki and Ceylan's jackets. A certain girl swam over and slapped him, then helped everyone get back to shore with their boats. Once they were on the sandy beach of the lake, Brittany face palmed.

"Chevy," She sighed, "You were scared of water this whole time, but you helped us anyways?"

He smiled weakly, "Y-yeah, sorry about that."

"One, that's super dumb. Two, that's really sweet. Thanks…" Brittany smiled at him.

Chevy nodded, then said, "I'll be fine from here on. I'm heading home."

"Here's your jacket, dude," Ceylan handed it to Chevy.

He tossed the leather jacket over his shoulder, "Anyways, I'll be seeing you around."

"Yeah. Thanks again, Chevy." Guren said.

He smiled at them, eyes closing easily. After a little bit of time of the team walking away, he opened his eyes and frowned, watching their retreating forms. He sighed softly, then turned around to leave. Just before he started heading back to his house, he gritted his teeth. Chevy pulled out a small orange core brick, watching it glint in the sunlight.

"If only you knights knew why I helped you…" He whispered.

"See you later, Chooki!" Brittany called, walking into her house.

"Bye!"

When she shut the door that night, she realized something. Her house felt empty. Maybe it was because she had always been lonely, had always been unaware of what it felt like to have friends, that she never realized that feeling was always there. Today, though, had been warm and inviting, with lots of moments with her new… no, not friends, they couldn't be her friends. Even though she had argued a lot with Chooki, and despite the total wreck of the boat, she had been happy with something besides her writing for the first time in a long time. That was certainly something different than the usual feelings she had.

After a long moment, she actually thought about inviting somebody over to her house. Toxsa, Ceylan, Guren- heck, she would be happy to invite Perfect Mason over right now. It would alleviate that sense of being tiny in a gigantic home, that sense of shrinking. Brittany snorted to herself. This was the price of making something akin to friendships, but maybe if she held her tongue for long enough, she could get close to the guys. Maybe then she could have a moment of happiness between herself and not-exactly-friends.

"You think too much, Brittany." She insisted to herself, "You don't hold your tongue, you blurt acid."

After a few hours of doing homework, binge eating, and being unsure of how to stop the pain in her chest, she found herself calling up Chooki. When she realized what she was doing, she started praying he wouldn't pick up. She heard the answering click, and a soft groan escaped her lips.

"This is Chooki."

"Hey, it's Brittany. Chooki, you mind coming over?"

"Sorry, no can do, I'm at a game. What for?"

"It was just to talk. Don't worry about it."

Ceylan was definitely not happy the next day. As soon as Brittany walked into homeroom, holding her clipboard and a set of thin illustration markers, she saw he was miserable. Brittany took her seat beside him with a frown, reaching to place her hand on his shoulder as if she actually was his frie- no! She stopped mid-gesture despite the fact that Guren was looking at her, knowing what she was going to do. She assured herself that she was a wicked person, reminding herself that she enjoyed the suffering of others, that she thrived off of watching people feel pain. Seeing a person cry was her favorite thing to watch. She couldn't go comforting some guy…

Her fingers wrapped around his shoulder anyways. Silently cursing her sudden softness, she sat beside him, still clasping his shoulder in a manner that was comforting. A squeeze followed, and she smiled at him.

"You good, Goggles?" Brittany asked, then tugged his goggles over his eyes.

Ceylan didn't answer her.

"Goggles…"

Ceylan, after a moment, said, "Yeah. I'm fine, don't worry."

He gently pushed the green goggles back up onto his head, and then he pushed her gently, so she sat down, still keeping her gaze on him. She saw him mouth the words "it's over" to himself, which made her frown. Was there something keeping him from doing something? Did he finally finish something, or did he finally just get sent back to kindergarten?

"Look, I may laugh in the face of crying children, but… Ugh, this is going to sound so cheap… But you're my… f-f-friiiii-" Brittany cut it out and said instead, "I care about you."

Ceylan smiled sadly, "It's good. I'll be fine."

"If you say so…" She said, but the worry on her face was clear.

The classes went by, almost like a blur, but soon enough, school was out. Ceylan glanced at Brittany, who was writing and eating a small amount of sunflower seed meat. He decided to peer over her shoulder and read what she had written.

::As her fingers danced across the keyboard, designing the proper armor for his broad shoulders, Hikaru closed his hands impatiently. Joell seemed to be just as worried, even though he was typically the only one who keeps a light heart in these kind of moments. She::

All of a sudden, he felt a hand whip across his face, realizing that he had been leaning on her. She had a particular hatred of contact, probably because she hadn't been given enough hugs in her life. When she finally realized who she had been slapping, she looked like she felt guilty. Her hand pulled back to her side, and she got up. They began walking

"Sorry about that, Goggles." She apologized.

Ceylan replied, "It's fine. I forgot you hate to be touched."

"Haphephobia."

Ceylan stopped in his tracks. "Wha…?"

"Haphephobia!" She repeated, "The fear of touching or being touched. I'm haphephobic."

After a minute, the blue haired boy understood what she was talking about. "Oh… I didn't know that word or that you had that."

"It's actually not your fault since I don't hang out with people very often." She admitted, "Nobody ever touches me anyways."

Ceylan began to walk again, and she followed, "Is that some sort of lack of hugs as a baby problem?"

"Ha! I spent hours being held by my mom. I just… I don't like handshakes. Or kisses." After a moment, she shuddered, "And I despise hugs…"

He droned, "Sounds like you have everything an affectionate boyfriend hates."

"Good thing I'm not on the dating scene, then."

After a minute or so, the made it out to the courtyard, where the others were waiting. They all smiled, waved, and said greetings, while Brittany kept her eyes on Ceylan. He really seemed to be thinking hard about something, but the brunette wasn't sure what. She spaced out, picking at her vest and eating Skittles quietly.

"Brittany, we're being summoned. You coming?" Ceylan asked.

It took her a minute to realize he was talking to her. "Oh, uhhh… Yeah."

Brillius was not ready to do this again, but hey. This was her team as much as it was Bravenwolf's. She felt kind of angry, to be honest, remembering Mr. White informing her that she was not necessary for robofusion. It made her feel obsolete. Like a useless extra to the team.

"Come on, Brittany," Her mind taunted her, "You know you are a useless extra."

Brillius whispered, "Shut up, brain."

"Uhhh, who's the extra company…?" Tributon sounded like he was about to panic.

Brillius peeked out to see an orange and black robot, his chest plate resembling that of a mustang. Her throat tightened exponentially, knowing who that probably was. He seemed not to be interested in getting involved, as if observing the battle was all that he was there to do. If she was right about who it was, it would probably break her heart to know. She then assured herself that it wasn't him. There were no other portals to Quarton besides Mr. White's, and he would tell them if there was a knight who is fighting against them. No, he had to be one of the unseen Vilius's goons…

"I don't think he's interested in deleting us…" Valorn commented.

After a moment, the stranger just left, as if he felt satisfied that he did his job. Bravenwolf called out, "Looks like it's time for round two."

"Good luck, guys." Brillius shouted to them.

Lydendor replied, "Don't worry, we'll be fine. You just keep the Corekai from getting their bots debotified."

"Debotifed isn't a word!" She yelled.

Lydendor dashed off to meet with the others, a chuckle escaping him. She watched them all gather up, standing around doing nothing for a few seconds. She was shielding Beag now, since Bravenwolf left. She felt like losing Beag would cause them to be decimated so fast it wouldn't even be funny. After a minute or so of them still doing nothing, Brillius felt concern blossom in her chest.

"What's wrong with them? Aren't they supposed to go all… I dunno, robofusion-y?" She asked aloud.

Beag shrugged, "I am not certain. They seem to be, ah..."

"Goofing off? Being a bunch of mantigos?" She suggested.

He paused, "The first one, yes, but was is a 'mantigo' you speak of?"

"… It's, uh," She lied, "It's secret knowledge. A mantigo is a secret monster hunted to extinction."

Beag nodded, "Ah, yes, secret knowledge! You are Brillius the wise, after all!"

"Exactly. I know things." She crowed.

After a moment, Beag asked, "Still, what are they doing?"

"Beats me… I mean, why are they just… standing there?"

Stratus frowned to himself quietly, thinking about how ridiculously slowly this is going. He had done everything he could to set the Tenkai Knights up to succeed, to make them confident, but they weren't doing anything that they were meant to do. Why were they just waiting, and what for? Perhaps he hadn't done enough to make this play out the proper manner? He felt a twinge of anger at himself, but quickly stifled it by reminding himself that it wasn't lying if they didn't ask.

"What are they waiting for?" Granox demanded.

Stratus said, "They're not waiting, they're trying to do something."

"What are they trying to do?" Granox asked.

He replied, "I think it would be 'robofusion', if I am not mistaken."

After a couple more minutes, it was becoming painstakingly obvious that they were not having any success at this. Stratus held his breath, eyes glinting in the light. The knights had just bashed their heads together.

"That's just sad…" The gray Corrupted general muttered.

Stratus agreed, "Pathetic."

"Don't let me down," He thought to himself, "You can't just let me down, knights. I need you to win, or I'll lose. I can't lose…"

Finally, he sees Tributon behaving somewhat differently. He watches as they all get synced up, and smiled to himself, though none could see it in his armor. He made a vanishing act, not wanting to be on the receiving end of what is happening. The last thing he sees is the Protojet getting fired up, and Brillius staring, stunned by the impressive plane. Then Stratus is gone, and there is no more for him to tell.

"Whoa…" Brillius breathed.

Beag agreed, "I believe now is a proper time to be amazed…"

"So… How does that thing work?" She asked.

He paused, "That's right. You've never works through a combined will."

They watched it go phoenix, flames dancing off the plane as it rushed through the group of flying Corrupted freaks. After a few more rounds of messing up the Corrupted forces, the team blew it off the handle and destroyed the entire fortress, along with Granox. They land and unshift from their Protojet form, they raced over to Brillius and Beag.

"That was amazing!" Brillius immediately shouted at them.

Valorn cheered, "We totally just put their hard drives on the fritz!"

"That was one goal I am so glad we scored." Lydendor agreed.

Tributon added in, "It was great!"

"Please tell me you saw that- please tell me you did!" Bravenwolf cried out at them.

Brillius assured, "I saw, I saw. It was crazy awesome!"

"… You're awfully quiet now, Brittany. Something the matter?" Chooki asked.

It took her a moment to realize who Chooki was talking to, but when she did, she simply looked away. Brittany didn't know what was going on with her… acquaintance, Ceylan, but it bothered her to have seen him behaving so strangely earlier. She took a moment, then looked at Chooki.

"What's up with Ceylan?" She finally asked.

Chooki paused, hesitated, then said, "Well… he's leaving…"

"… Perfect, don't tell me this isn't a joke. Lie and say you're kidding." She begged.

He frowned, "You know, for somebody who insists that she doesn't have friends, you sure are getting worked up over him leaving."

"I don't care about him… I just…" Brittany felt her heart in her throat, knowing she shouldn't reply.

"Just what?" He asked, obviously not buying her "I don't care" attitude.

"… I'm just not ready to lose part of a team we only just began."

After a moment, they reached her house. A long moment of stillness ensued, no words being spoken, no moves being made. After a moment, she put her arm out, silently gesturing to her house with a look of soft determination. Chooki was surprised, not even bothering to hide that shocked feeling from the girl.

"Would you like to come in?" She asked.

After a long moment, Chooki agreed. "Sure, I'm game."

When he came in, he saw one thing that he didn't expect: dust. Lots and lots of dust on everything besides the kitchen area and the couch. He saw bills on a lonely table for that month, the proper amount in each envelope beside the bill. He began exploring the place. Dusty furniture, lots of different dusty things. When he finally found Brittany's room, he was surprised to see the lack of dust in there, as if she only ever spent time in her room and in her kitchen.

"Chooki, what are you doing?" A sharp voice pierced his ears.

He apologized, "Sorry, I was taking a look around. You should probably clean up the place a little…"

"Maybe…" Brittany frowned.

He wondered, "Where are your parents?"

"My mom is traveling the world, and my dad's been away for about two years now." She explained, "Now come down to the kitchen so we can eat. I always have fresh food in the fridge."

He agreed absently, seeing a picture of a bright eyed girl with long brown hair, braces, and wearing a significant amount of blue- wait… Her face… He realized the picture was of Brittany about three years younger. He frowned, then followed downstairs for a short chat and some food.

Slumping against the desk wasn't her thing, but today, she fell into her chair. Today, Ceylan would not show his face. Today, she would find herself beside an empty seat, so she would move over to be beside Guren. Brittany sadly laid on the desk, only to hear a door open. She heard Guren excitedly talking to somebody, but she didn't bother to care. She missed her… friend. Yeah, she missed her friend. He was her friend. All the knights were...

"What's the matter with you?" She heard a very familiar voice ask.

She mumbled, "Shut up, Ceylan, I'm busy missing- Ceylan!"

She sat upright in a flash, out of her seat tackling the blue haired boy. She stole his goggles of his head, and put them on herself, still pinning him. Guren started chuckling, and she ignored the lack of dignity that came with the sudden happiness. She had already started missing Ceylan when his idiot bot came in the classroom.

"Goggles, what is wrong with you?! I thought you were leaving!" She whimpered.

Ceylan didn't even bother to peel her off him, finding it nice to see her in a less stubborn mood. "The company my dad was moving to got shut down, so we had to stay."

"I'm… glad." She managed to admit to him. "I'm glad you stayed."

"Aaaaaaw, how cute… Looks like somebody's going soft on us." He teased her.

Immediately, Brittany stopped hugging him and kicked him in the knee, making him fall on his face. She snapped, "I'm not going soft, you are!"

"You're right," He choked out in an agonized voice, "Just please don't kick me again."

"… I was about to miss you."

"Good to know."